Negroes for Sale: Two Negroes Cross Plains 1857

Heartbreaking historical document: an 1857 slave auction advertisement from Cross Plains, Tennessee, announcing the sale of "TWO NEGROES" by court decree. Posted by John S. Hutchison on June 18, 1857, this chilling poster advertises the sale of "Dick, aged about 50 years, and Lydia, about 14 years of age, the property of the late David Malloy, deceased." The advertisement reveals one of slavery's cruelest aspects—when slaveholders died, their human "property" was sold to settle estates, tearing apart any remaining family connections. A 50-year-old man and a 14-year-old girl, possibly father and daughter or completely unrelated, would be sold to the highest bidder on credit terms. The casual bureaucratic language—"by virtue of a decree," "cash for costs"—treats human beings as assets to be liquidated. Young Lydia, barely a teenager, faced an uncertain and horrifying future. A devastating document of slavery's dehumanization and the legal system that supported it, available in three sizes with your choice of black or silver aluminum frame.